The ability to grant pardons is among a president’s most unchecked powers.
Pardons have corrected injustices, and they’ve caused outrage. But historians consider some of President Donald Trump’s pardons among the most controversial ever granted.
Experts say many of his pardons follow a pattern...

WASHINGTON — On Memorial Day 2013, Coleen Bowman was a new widow. Her husband had died four months earlier and she wanted support to face that first military holiday of remembrance. So she registered for TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, and spent the weekend with hundreds of other ...

Recently posted versions of acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s daily schedules contain at least 260 differences from his original schedules, with the newest records showing meetings previously described as “external” or “internal” were actually with representatives of fossil fuel, ti...

All eyes will be on the House and Senate Appropriations committees this week, but not necessarily because of President Donald Trump's fiscal 2020 budget blueprint.
Attorney General William P. Barr is scheduled to testify Tuesday in the House and Wednesday in the Senate about the Justice Department's...

The Trump administration designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a "foreign terrorist organization" on Monday, a move aimed at further isolating Tehran that could end up complicating U.S. alliances with Iraq and Lebanon. "We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the...

Donald Trump, as president and a private citizen, asked a federal appeals court to put an end to lawsuits challenging his ability to make money from his Washington hotel even if some of the revenue comes from other governments.
Democratic attorneys general from the District of Columbia and Maryland say...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Trump administration’s power to arrest and hold legal immigrants indefinitely if they had past crimes on their records that could trigger deportation, even if they served their time years ago or were convicted of minor drug offenses.
The justices, by a 5-4 vo...

Longtime Trump fixer Michael Cohen is ready to bite the hand that wouldn't cover his legal costs.
Cohen, in a Manhattan Supreme Court filing, charged Thursday that the Trump Organization reneged on a July 2017 agreement to cover his attorneys' fees and costs in connection with the lawyer's legal representation...

The White House made a quiet but notable personnel change a few weeks ago, moving a veteran staff attorney to a press office that is preparing a response to the much-anticipated final report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whatever it says, whenever it comes.
The transfer of Steven Groves...

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Ohio progressive who offered Democrats high hopes of recapturing voters in the Midwest, announced Thursday he would not be running for president.
"I will keep calling out Donald Trump and his phony populism," Brown said in a statement. "I will keep fighting for all workers...

WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders’ boundary-pushing policy agenda defined the septuagenarian senator as a fresh, revolutionary candidate to legions of young and progressive supporters, helping carry him to unexpected success in his first try for the presidency.
He won’t have it as easy the second time a...

The deep desire among Democrats to beat President Donald Trump in 2020 is filling the chairs in Iowa homes and meeting halls as candidates parade through the state.
Even though the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses won’t be held for another 11 months, large and energetic crowds more typical o...

A second television journalist working for a U.S. media outlet was abducted and detained for several hours Tuesday in Caracas, Venezuela. The correspondent, Daniel Garrido, was later released.
Garrido is the Venezuela correspondent for Telemundo, the Spanish-language network owned by media giant NBCUniversal....

The U.S. military commander tasked with defending North America said Tuesday that there is no military threat at the southern border, where President Donald Trump has deployed troops to assist law enforcement in stemming illegal border crossings.
"It is not a military threat," Gen. Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy,...

The House's approval Tuesday of a resolution to override President Donald Trump's emergency declaration at the southern border sets up a difficult vote for Senate Republicans.
Three Republican senators have said they plan to support the resolution, just one shy of the four GOP votes needed to pass...

At South Korea's northernmost train station, the tracks stop abruptly ahead of the demilitarized zone that marks the North Korean border. A sign reads: "The steel horse wants to run."
That may soon become a reality as U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un prepare for a second summit...

Rep. Steve King was defiant in an interview with Iowa public television this week, insisting he won't apologize for the racist remarks and actions that cost him all of his committee assignments and endangered his reelection.
"I have nothing to apologize for," King told a roundtable of reporters on...

Some of the top Democratic presidential candidates are trying to make a name for themselves by calling for higher taxes on the wealthy. And for some wealthy donors, that's not a problem.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont are focusing their 2020 campaigns on trendy...

A U.S.-backed militia has sent trucks to the edge of Islamic State's dwindling territory in eastern Syria to evacuate hundreds of civilians as well as surrendering fighters, many of them foreign-born, commanders said Tuesday.
About 200 families remain trapped in Islamic State's last remaining slice...

Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams told a congressional subcommittee examining ways to boost voting rights that a toxic combination of "incompetence and malfeasance" led to a systemic voter suppression effort in Georgia.
"Incompetence and malfeasance operates in tandem...

Bowing to bipartisan concerns in Congress, President Donald Trump retreated Tuesday from his plan to create an independent space force in the Pentagon, proposing instead to consolidate the military's space operations and personnel in the Air Force.
The scaled-down plan would still establish a new...

The Supreme Court meets behind closed doors Friday to weigh a question that could shape the political power of California for the decade ahead.
At issue is the Trump administration's plan to ask all households for the first time since 1950 whether occupants are U.S. citizens.
State officials and...

On the face of it, self-declared socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Donald Trump have little in common when it comes to economic policy. He's been cutting taxes. She wants the rich to pay more. He wants more coal-fired power plants. She has plans for a Green New Deal. And then there's trade. Trump...

In a display of their ability to act as a government, several Venezuelan opposition leaders traveled to Washington on Thursday to share first steps of their plan to lead the country out of its humanitarian crisis, and to ask the international community for money to do it.
It's the first time the government...

Just like last year, it was a beautifully sunny, crisp Valentine's Day in Parkland.
There were media trucks lined up like a train for half a mile. Students, parents, teachers held each other. They were still trying to make sense of why a former student would carry out the deadliest school shooting...

In the nation's opioid epidemic, the carnage is far from over.
A new projection of opioid overdose death rates suggests that even if there is steady progress in reducing prescription narcotics abuse nationwide, the number of fatal overdoses _ which reached 47,600 in 2017 _ will rise sharply in the...

President Donald Trump sought Sunday to pre-emptively cast blame on Democrats if an impasse over his demand for a border wall leads to a second partial government shutdown this week.
Stopgap funding for about one-third of the government is due to expire at midnight Friday, and congressional negotiations...

Lawmakers heard from an expert Thursday who said there is "no wiggle room" for the Treasury secretary to deny a request for President Donald Trump's tax returns from one of the tax committees.
A refusal to provide the tax returns would be "uncharted territory," said George K. Yin, a professor at the...

Democrats on a House subcommittee demanded answers Thursday from Health and Human Services officials regarding how many children were actually separated from parents during the "zero tolerance" policy last spring at the southern border, after a report found that thousands more children could have been...

Even as climate change has rapidly evolved from an abstract threat to a tangible crisis, political candidates have struggled to make it a central focus of campaigns dominated by more immediate voter concerns.
Now, the political conversation is catching up.
Climate change issues, and more specifically...

Republican efforts to label the Democratic Party as socialists reached a new level Tuesday night as President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to further that partisan message — prompting groans and grimaces from Democrats.
“We are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in ou...

Howard Schultz, who turned Starbucks into an international hot-beverage behemoth, is brewing up a possible run for president, and, no, that’s not the last bad coffee pun you will hear between now and when he decides.
The Seattle billionaire announced he was exploring a possible 2020 run as an indep...

The first contests to pick the Democrat who’ll challenge President Donald Trump in 2020 play to the strengths of Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, giving each a significant edge when voters begin winnowing the field of contenders.
Both are talented fundraisers who set down markers by jumpi...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he may soon meet with China’s Xi Jinping to finalize details of a possible trade deal as he declared negotiations in Washington were making progress.
“Meetings are going well with good intent and spirit on both sides,” Trump said in a tweet Thursday....

The Zimbabwean military's move to end Robert Mugabe's almost four-decade reign in 2017 sent jubilant crowds pouring into the streets of the capital hoping for better times after years of economic stagnation and repression. In the ensuing months, those dreams have been dashed.
Since Emmerson Mnangagwa,...

It's a question on many blue lips this week, as the Midwest braced for below-zero temperatures for its daily high on Wednesday: How can global warming be true when it's so cold?
Even President Donald Trump, in a tweet late Tuesday, seemed to question the coexistence of climate change and an arctic...

President Donald Trump Wednesday morning spoke by phone with Juan Guaido, whom he has recognized as Venezuela's interim president, amid violence and political unrest there.
Trump called Guaido to "congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and to reinforce President Trump's strong...

Senate Republicans have released a $354.5 billion fiscal 2019 spending package that includes $5.7 billion for border wall construction as well as temporary relief for enrollees in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and immigrants receiving Temporary Protected Status.
The 1,301-page...

A lawyer's job is to make a client look innocent, if not to prove it _ something President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani has been struggling with in recent days. In a string of interviews, Giuliani has walked back a series of potentially damaging statements where he implied there were tapes of...

Leaking pipes. Moldering walls. Condemned offices and balconies. Plumbing that can't handle its load and a stormwater system dumping unfiltered rainwater into the Severn River.
These aren't the issues of a long-abandoned factory. They describe the current condition of the Naval Academy.
Infrastructure...

A historic church in southwest Atlanta was found vandalized Monday while its members were celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Isaiah Waddy, the pastor of Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, told Channel 2 Action News it was the first incident of its kind in the nearly 56 years the church...

The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside nationwide orders from three federal judges and ruled the Defense Department could now enforce President Donald Trump's policy that effectively bans transgender people from serving in the military.
The justices acted on a 5-4 vote, over dissents by Justices Ruth...

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration's plan to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 census, which will help determine U.S. elections, congressional seats and federal funding decisions for a decade.
The ruling comes after a two-week trial in Manhattan that the government sought...

A day after appearing to downplay the stature of his proposed southern border wall, President Donald Trump sent a message to congressional Democratic leaders: "Only a wall will work" as a partial government shutdown over his demands enters its 25th day.
Trump sent mixed messages about his proposed...

William P. Barr, President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, told a Senate panel Tuesday that he did not believe special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was on a "witch hunt" and said he would consult with ethics lawyers on whether he needs to step aside from supervising the probe in light of...

After congressional elections in which Democrats in record numbers chose to elevate women, minority and gay candidates, casting ballots for diversity and youth in district after district, the list of presidential hopefuls most exciting to Democratic voters is a bit curious.
At the top, several polls...

Miami-Dade has tens of thousands of septic tanks, and a new report reveals most are already malfunctioning _ the smelly and unhealthy evidence of which often ends up in people's yards and homes. It's a billion-dollar problem that climate change is making worse.
As sea level rise encroaches on South...

The partial government shutdown may be making some key federal departments and agencies running with skeletal staffs more vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches, experts said.
Meanwhile, the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Department of Homeland Security, said it remains in the...

As trade talks closed on Wednesday afternoon, after continuing into an unscheduled third day, optimism boosted global stocks amid hopes that an all-out trade war might be avoided before a March 1 deadline to reach a deal.
But differences remain, likely to be handled in talks between more senior officials...

Billionaire Tom Steyer refused to say whether he would use his own fortune to fund a potential 2020 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination ahead of a scheduled announcement about his political plans.
"If you look at look at what I've done over the last six years working full-time in grassroots...

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo on Wednesday made an unannounced trip to Iraq as part of his Middle East reassurance campaign, and heard pleas for more help in fighting Islamic State militants.
Pompeo is attempting to explain to Arab allies President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw...

The incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he is confident President Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general is committed to letting the special counsel probe led by Robert S. Mueller III run its course.
William P. Barr, who previously served as attorney general during the...

House Democrats sent a letter Wednesday to acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker demanding that he appear before the House Judiciary Committee by Jan. 29, saying that the government shutdown is no excuse for delaying his testimony.
Whitaker previously wrote to Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York...

The "gender specific" terms Latino and Chicano are being selectively replaced with "Latinx" and "Chicanx."
The change was promoted by students, social justice activists and the LGBTQ community, which are trying to get people to look beyond conventional notions of gender, sex and appearance.

President Donald Trump on Monday called for a halt to recounts in Florida, where Republican candidates for Senate and governor lead. He alleged without evidence that Democratic candidates' gains were the result of fraud.
The president's statement, in a morning tweet, contradicted Florida officials...

From the beginning, the founders of the so-called Rise Above Movement had a goal: to reinvent what it meant to be a white nationalist.
Members of the Southern California group were instructed to blend in at political rallies with polo shirts, khakis and military-style haircuts. They were told to avoid...

The Environmental Protection Agency released a plan for eliminating regulations next year that would likely dwarf its current rule-cutting pace.
The agency expects to finalize approximately 30 deregulatory actions and fewer than 10 regulatory actions in fiscal 2019, according to the Trump administration's...

Imagine an egalitarian society that treats women and men with equal respect, where both sexes are afforded the same opportunities, and the economy is strong.
What would happen to gender differences in this utopia? Would they dissolve?
The answer, according to a new study, is a resounding no.
The...

The departure of Nikki Haley, one of the most polished messengers of President Donald Trump's policy, will leave a void in a chaotic White House where, after two turbulent years, few officials remain who are trusted by Republicans of all stripes.
Haley, the former governor of South Carolina who has...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk will give up his position as chairman of the company's board and pay a $20 million fine to settle a fraud complaint with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency announced Saturday. He will remain CEO.
The SEC sued Musk Thursday for misleading investors when he said...

President Donald Trump is not seeking to "micromanage" the FBI's investigation of sexual-misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the White House press secretary said Sunday.
Democrats raised concerns that important lines of inquiry were off limits to investigators.
The...

Sen. Lindsey Graham had kept quiet during Christine Blasey Ford's testimony that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 1982.
But by the time it was his turn to speak during Kavanaugh's rebuttal before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the South Carolina Republican became...

Sen. Jeff Flake, a member of the Judiciary Committee, sounded very conflicted Thursday evening following a meeting of the Senate Republican Conference on the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.
While the plan is for the judiciary panel to meet to markup the nomination Friday morning, the...

The family of 26-year-old Botham Jean plans to sue the city of Dallas and the former Dallas police officer who shot him in his own apartment earlier this month.
Attorney Lee Merritt said Allison and Bertrum Jean plan to file a federal lawsuit claiming excessive use of force by Amber Guyger.
The...

It was hardly the first time President Donald Trump had expressed his disdain for "globalism" — but his latest condemnation made the world sit up and take notice.
"America is governed by Americans," he told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. "We reject the ideology of globalism, and...

Slowly, Bill Cosby removed the jacket of his navy pinstripe suit, undid his necktie and rolled up his sleeves before being handcuffed and led from the courtroom.
"This is it; this is the day," said Tamara Green, a 70-year-old Cosby accuser who had traveled from San Diego to Pennsylvania to watch the...

Sen. Tim Scott still backs Brett Kavanaugh to serve on the Supreme Court, but the South Carolina Republican also said he could change his mind.
Scott's view is markedly different from most other GOP senators, who are not wavering in their support for Kavanaugh as he battles allegations of sexual misconduct...

Christine Blasey Ford is now scheduled to testify Thursday morning at the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The committee announced the rescheduling of Kavanaugh's continued confirmation hearing Sunday. The hearing had been...

After months of demonstrations and protests, hotel workers at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim overwhelmingly approved a contract that boosts hourly salaries by at least 40 percent over two years and clears the way for staff to get bonuses that were promised last year.
The five-year contract establishes...

South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman opened an election debate Thursday by cracking a joke that attempted to play off the controversy over the sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
It did not go over well, according to a report from The Post and Courier.
Norman,...

Duke Energy reported over the weekend that enough coal ash had spilled near one of its Wilmington power plants to nearly fill up an Olympic-sized swimming pool — and that a second coal ash site near Goldsboro was experiencing flooding but hadn't spilled yet.
But Wednesday night, environmental activists...

It's often said that conservative challenges to Republican incumbents in primary elections — the prime example being Dave Brat's victory over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014 — have led to more polarization in Congress, with the challengers less willing to compromise than their predecessors.
Now...

Rivers continued to rise out of their banks across the Carolinas on Tuesday, frustrating rescue efforts and residents hoping to return home.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, acknowledged the difficulties following a tour of flooded...

The Pentagon will soon have received about $2.3 billion in the last nine years — money the military never requested — for a special fund intended to help replace earmarks after Congress banned them, our analysis shows.
Buried deep inside the $674.4 billion Defense spending measure for fiscal 2019...

Betsy Rader's political agenda includes a check-list of liberal priorities: She unequivocally supports abortion rights, believes in universal health care, talks forcefully about the importance of gay rights, and — per an aide — is "incredibly dismayed" by President Donald Trump's immigration policy.
So...

Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh's carefully planned confirmation — once seen as a sure bet — slipped into limbo Monday after he and the woman accusing him of a decades-old sexual assault offered to testify about the allegations.
The Senate now appears increasingly unlikely to move ahead...

The Violence Against Women Act, which was set to expire Sept. 30, will be extended through Dec. 7 under a stopgap spending bill released Thursday.
"Any program, authority or provision, including any pilot program, authorized under the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 shall continue...

With unemployment steadily declining and more people working full time in year-round jobs, household incomes in the United States rose moderately last year, and the nation's poverty rate fell to the lowest point in more than a decade, according to new federal government data.
But in another important...

Responding to an "epidemic of nicotine addiction" among young Americans, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced a comprehensive crackdown on e-cigarette manufacturers, directing the industry's giants to draw up detailed plans for halting sales to minors and threatening to pull a...

An arrest affidavit released Monday afternoon gives additional details of what happened the night a Dallas police officer shot and killed a 26-year-old man inside his apartment.
Amber Guyger, 30, is charged with manslaughter in the death of Botham Shem Jean on Thursday night. She claimed she mistook...

Before she leaves her house in a dress or skirt, or anything else perceived as feminine, Willow Fields braces for a hard day.
At best, she expects to be gawked at and misgendered by cashiers and ride-hailing drivers. At worst, she fears becoming the target of violence in a country where at least 28...

You already know that using solar and wind power can influence the climate by reducing our dependence on heat-trapping fossil fuels. Now scientists say these renewable forms of energy can change the climate more directly — and do it in ways that might surprise you.
If wind turbines and solar panels...

Most Senate Republicans are avoiding mere mention of Roe v. Wade during this week's hearings on whether Brett Kavanaugh should become a Supreme Court justice. Sen. Lindsey Graham isn't one of them.
The South Carolina Republican is readily, even eagerly, wading into the abortion debate. A senior member...

WASHINGTON — Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday defended his broad view of gun rights and restrictions on abortion for young immigrant women, but refused to say whether a president can be ordered to answer questions in a criminal investigation.
Facing senators during a second day of his confirmation h...

Nike Inc.'s decision to feature Colin Kaepernick in its latest "Just Do It" advertising campaign predictably blew up the internet.
In one video, Nike shoes were set on fire. John Rich, half of the country music duo Big & Rich, showed that his soundman had cut Nike's iconic swoosh off his socks....

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill questioned top executives at Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday about their companies' ability to thwart foreign interference, and hinted that industry regulations may be coming.
The "size and reach of your platforms demand that we, as policymakers, do our job, to ensure proper...

Proposed changes to how the nation's colleges and universities handle sexual assault investigations left sexual assault survivors and victim rights organizations sputtering mad, claiming the moves would tip the playing field toward those accused of sexual assault.
"Is ruining lives your version of a...

California lawmakers advanced an ambitious proposal Thursday to prevent broadband providers from hindering or manipulating access to the internet, bringing the state closer to enacting the strongest net neutrality protections in the country.
The legislation by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would...

A terrified Florida family has enlisted the help of trappers, hunting dogs and state wildlife officers to try to catch a monitor lizard that has made repeated visits to their home in Davie.
It's an estimated 7 feet long, weighs approximately 150 pounds and has shown up in their backyard at least three...

Andrew Gillum's supporters and campaign team spent the final weeks of the primary campaign telling anyone who would listen that their candidate was surging, and would end up as the Democratic nominee for Florida governor.
Few people listened.
Then, on Tuesday night, he upset the presumed frontrunner,...

The House passed a bill last fall and similar legislation is pending in the Senate. Both aim to boost the driverless car industry by streamlining rules and preventing states from imposing their own safety and performance standards.

WASHINGTON _ The Trump administration announced Tuesday it is withdrawing from the U.N. body that oversees human rights around the globe, saying the 47-nation council has shown an "unconscionable" bias against Israel and a blind willingness to ignore abuse elsewhere.
The decision to leave the U.N....

The Trump administration moved on multiple fronts Tuesday to prepare for a possible nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore next month, as U.S. diplomats scrambled to revive the meeting that Trump had publicly scrapped last week.
Most importantly, the White House said Secretary...

Officials in Puerto Rico say that 64 people lost their lives after Hurricane Maria slammed into the island in September. A new report says that estimate is off _ by about 4,600.
If the analysis is correct, it means that for every hurricane-related death that's currently on the books, another 70 fatalities...